Perspectives in Jaina Philosophy and Culture

Author(s): Satish Jain, Kamalchand Sogani
Publisher: Ahimsa International

Page 89

Ahimsa
Shri Shrenik Kasturbhai
It is a matter of deep gratification for me that I have been afforded this opportunity of adding my voice to the concern being expressed regarding the ever escalating incidence of Himsa in human attitudes and conduct It is all the more regrettable that even a country like India, with its thousands of years of cultural and religious traditions of compassion and mercy, should succumb to an extent that it condescends to organize on a massive scale operation of exporting meat and fish to earn foreign exchange It is, indeed, an irony of fate that at such an advanced stage of what we call civilization, the man instead of having achieved peace and prosperity, as one would expect, should be so mindlessly bent upon producing weapon of total destruction like the atom bomb
It is undoubtedly a pertient question today, as to how this tide of mounting Himsa can be stemmed and an era of Ahimsa ushered in With the scientific and technological progress achieved during the last couple of decades, we have willi-nilly arrived at the crossroads, not only of the history of the human race, but of the entire life on the planet We possess the capacity today either to hopelessly cripple and even totally annihilate life on the planet, or to eradicate, all want, and misery on earth and transform it into a happy dwelling place for man and all Unfortunately, the voice of reason, and sanity sounds feeble amidst the din of aggressiveness which is clearls symptomatic of the misquided development of human character Our near total preoccupation with the development of the intellect, coupled with a near total neglect of spiritual cultivation is creating an environment which is more conductive to the creation of Ravanas, where knowledge, strength and valour turn malavolent, rather than to the evolution of Ramas where they become benevolent
When our sages proclaimed "AHIMSA PARMO DHARMAH", they had a penetratingly clear perception of the implications of the phenomenon of cause and effect, and that is why they saw no place for Himsa in DHARMA which is the righteous way of life The inference is clear, and unambiguous AHIMSA is the very core of a righteous life and devoid of it, an individual, and consequently a society, is incapable of achieving that blissful state of creative harmony acknowledged by the enlightened as the ultimate destiny of man as God's noblest creation